Flora of China 16: 358–359. 1995.

16. Medikus, Philos. Bot. 1: 31. 1789.

假狼紫草属 jia lang zi cao shu

Plants annual or perennial, hispid or strigose. Leaves alternate. Cymes elongated after anthesis, becoming racemose; bracts leaflike. Flowers crowded at anthesis. Calyx tubular-campanulate, 5-lobed from upper 1/3 to middle, turgid saccate; lobes long triangular. Corolla blue-purple or yellow; tube straight; appendages scaly, below throat in upper part of tube; lobes spreading, overlapping, apex obtuse. Stamens included or slightly exserted; anthers oblong, obtuse, or mucronate. Ovary 4-divided. Style not exserted from corolla; stigma globose, or style 2-cleft at apex. Gynobase flat. Nutlets slightly curved, reniform to subglobose, reticulate-wrinkled, glabrous or sparsely pubescent; attachment scar on lower part adaxially, concave, with ringlike margin and umbilical emergence.

About 35 species: Africa, W Asia, Europe; one species in China.

1. Nonea caspica (Willdenow) G. Don, Gen. Hist. 4: 336. 1838.

假狼紫草 jia lang zi cao

Onosma caspica Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 1: 775. 1797; Lycopsis caspica (Willdenow) Lehmann; L. picta Lehmann; Nonea picta (Lehmann) Fischer & C. A. Meyer.

Herbs annual. Stems usually branched from base, 5–25 cm tall; branches ascending to decumbent, hispid, short strigose, with glandular hairs. Leaves sessile, hispid, sparsely hirsute. Basal and lower stem leaves linear-oblanceolate, 3–6 cm × 4–10 mm; upper stem leaves linear-lanceolate, smaller. Inflorescences to 15 cm after anthesis, short strigose and hirsute. Pedicel ca. 3 mm; bracts linear-lanceolate, 1.5–5 cm. Calyx 5–8 mm, 5-parted to middle; lobes lanceolate- triangular. Corolla purple-red, 0.8–1.2 cm; appendages below throat 2-lobed; limb to 1/3 as long as tube; lobes ovate to suborbicular, margin entire or subdentate. Stamens inserted slightly above middle in corolla tube, included; anthers ca. 1.4 mm. Style ca. 4 mm; stigma subglobose, slightly 2-cleft. Gynobase slightly convex. Mature nutlets black-brown, reniform, ca. 4 mm, glabrous or sparsely pubescent before maturity, horizontally wrinkled, apex keeled; attachment scar cupular, margin finely dentate. Seeds gray-brown, reniform; radicle superior; cotyledons obovate-oblong. 2n = 16, 28, 44.

Slopes, foothills, valley terraces. N Xinjiang [, , , Mongolia, , Russia, , , ; SW Asia, E Europe].

Flora of China 16: 358–359. 1995.